Beethoven Missa Solemnis op. 123

Koussevitsky Conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Victor M758/M759 17816-17827

Digital Transfer and Restoration of the Complete 1941 Recording

Listen to the 320kbps MP3 Files:

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* Kyrie *

* Gloria *

* Credo *

* Sanctus *

* Agnus Dei *

Download 16/44 FLAC Files Here (Div Share)

PDF CD Insert (2 pages)

PDF of Original Victor M-759 Insert (4 pages)

Scroll down to view original Insert, container, labels and discs 

Beethoven Missa Solemnis (op.123), Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jeanette Vreeland, Soprano, Anna Kaskas, Contralto, John Priebe, Tenor, Norman Cordon, Bass, E. Power Biggs, Organ, Harvard Glee Club & Radcliffe Choral Society

Other featured performers include:  Richard Burgin, violin (Concertmaster);
possibly Georges Laurent, Principle Flute BSO

***Please contact me if you have more information about this and I'll add it to this webpage.

Recorded in 1938, Released in 1941

RCA VICTOR Musical Masterpiece Series: M 758 (17816-17821) & M759(17822-17827), Volumes 1 & 2 Complete, E- -V+ Condition

Playback reveals a some groove damage or other distortion in many loud passages with the whole chorus singing. This could be part of the recording or a flaw in my setup.  One early review complains about the recording quality:

1941 Review of this recording by Jonas Barish in the Harvard Crimson - Barish is critical of this recording and performance. 

Other Koussevitzky Links: 

A review of reissues by Martin Bookspan in the NYT 1/28/1990 -- "In the 25 years (1924-1949) when he was music director of the Boston Symphony, that orchestra was arguably the finest orchestra in the world - a miracle of subtle colors, finely shaded nuances and hair-trigger precision."

I believe this recording was never reissued on LP and only once on CD:  a 2 CD set on Pearl (GEMM9282) combined with Symphony No. 3 (1997) Out of Print

Short Review of this cd reissue by Simon Roberts at rec.music.classical.recordings (1997):   I was rather disappointed. In almost any given stretch of either work (except the ludicrously slow orchestral presto fugato in the Agnus Dei) one will encounter an intense, exciting performance of great and compelling musicianship (and execution, for that matter). The problem for me is that his many changes in tempo make no sense, mainly because they seem merely to happen for no good reason and bear no apparent relationship to the tempi that surround them.

Brief Discussion of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis by Jan Swafford on NPR:

Weekend Edition Sunday, February 12, 2006 - The Catholic mass which Beethoven called the Missa Solemnis is rarely performed. It's eclipsed by the better-known Ninth Symphony. But taken together, the two works shed light on the composer's spiritual world view.

The Missa Solemnis may be the greatest piece never heard. Nearly 90 minutes long, it requires a large chorus, an orchestra and four soloists. It's impractical for the concert hall and fits far less comfortably into a Catholic church service.

It concludes with a fraught, fragile and unanswered plea for peace amid the drumbeats of war. But the answer comes in the Ninth Symphony, with its chorale finale based on Schiller's "Ode to Joy," written in a time of revolution.

Those words and Beethoven's music call for humankind to kneel before the creator, but for answers to turn to one another. The path to peace, he suggests, is bestowed not from above, but from within us and among us, in universal brotherhood.  Jan Swafford

Read about the restoration process here-->>